Genotype patterns that contribute to increased risk for or protection from developing heroin addiction

• Published in: Molecular psychiatry Vol. 13; no. 4; pp. 417 - 428
• Main Authors: Nielsen, D A, Ji, F, Yuferov, V, Ho, A, Chen, A, Levran, O, Ott, J, Kreek, M J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2008; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Addictions; Addicts; Alcohol; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Psychology; Biology; Chromosomes, Human, X; Control; Cryptochromes; DNA microarrays; DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; Drug addiction; Drug use; Female; Flavoproteins - genetics; Gene Frequency; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic Testing; Genetic Variation; Genome-wide association studies; Genomes; Genomics; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Genotypes; Heroin; Heroin Dependence; Heroin habit; Humans; Linkage Disequilibrium; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabotropic receptors; Methadone; Narcotics; Neurosciences; Nuclear Proteins - genetics; Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 4, Group A, Member 2; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis - methods; Opioid receptors; original-article; Pharmacotherapy; Photolyase; Polymorphism; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate - genetics; Receptors, Opioid, mu - genetics; Risk factors; Trans-Activators - genetics; Transcription Factors - genetics; White People; China; New York; United States > US; microarray; polymorphism; heroin; gene; addiction; Addiction; Gene; Risk factor; Development; Genetics; Genotype; Genetic determinism; Heroin; Polymorphism
• ISSN: 1359-4184; 1476-5578; 1476-5578
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.mp.4002147

A genome-wide association study was conducted using microarray technology to identify genes that may be associated with the vulnerability to develop heroin addiction, using DNA from 104 individual former severe heroin addicts (meeting Federal criteria for methadone maintenance) and 101 individual control subjects, all Caucasian. Using separate analyses for autosomal and X chromosomal variants, we found that the strongest associations of allele frequency with heroin addiction were with the autosomal variants rs965972, located in the Unigene cluster Hs.147755 (experiment-wise q=0.053), and rs1986513 (q=0.187). The three variants exhibiting the strongest association with heroin addiction by genotype frequency were rs1714984, located in an intron of the gene for the transcription factor myocardin ( P =0.000022), rs965972 ( P =0.000080) and rs1867898 ( P =0.000284). One genotype pattern (AG-TT-GG) was found to be significantly associated with developing heroin addiction (odds ratio (OR)=6.25) and explained 27% of the population attributable risk for heroin addiction in this cohort. Another genotype pattern (GG-CT-GG) of these variants was found to be significantly associated with protection from developing heroin addiction (OR=0.13), and lacking this genotype pattern explained 83% of the population attributable risk for developing heroin addiction. Evidence was found for involvement of five genes in heroin addiction, the genes coding for the μ opioid receptor, the metabotropic receptors mGluR6 and mGluR8, nuclear receptor NR4A2 and cryptochrome 1 (photolyase-like). This approach has identified several new genes potentially associated with heroin addiction and has confirmed the role of OPRM1 in this disease.